Blanca Figuerola

Postdoc Researcher

Blanca Figuerola is currently a Ramón y Cajal researcher at the Institute of Marine Sciences (ICM-CSIC) of Barcelona and a member of the research group MEDRECOVER (medrecover.org). She obtained her PhD at the University of Barcelona (UB). Since early stages she has worked with outstanding scientists in a total of 12 research institutions from Spain (UB, ICM-CSIC), New Zealand (National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research), Falkland Islands (Falkland Islands Government Fisheries Department), UK (Natural History Museum), Italy (Institute of Biomolecular Chemistry, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn), Poland (Institute of Oceanology Polish Academy of Sciences), Australia (Australian Antarctic Division, Macquarie Uni), Panama (Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute) and USA (Texas A&M Uni). There she has acquired solid skills and an extensive experience designing and executing field and lab experiments in Antarctic (5 Antarctic expeditions), tropical and temperate regions. This research has been supported by 16 multidisciplinary projects (11 as PI) and by independently-funded research contracts, grants and awards, including 3 reintegration contracts (Juan la Cierva-Incorporación, 2018; Beatriu de Pinós/COFUND Marie Curie, 2020; Ramón y Cajal, 2023). 

Her main current research, especially focusing on marine calcifiers and pioneering poorly known groups such as bryozoans, aims to (1) assess their diversity, (ii) investigate the effects of environmental changes (e.g., ocean warming, acidification and hypoxia) on them and their associated microbiome and 2) use their fossil record to reconstruct natural and human-driven changes in coastal ecosystems. The final goal is to be able to better predict the future global change impacts on marine ecosystems and generate scientific research that can inform policy decisions. Besides this research line, she is also assessing plastic debris as a dispersal vector of marine invasive species.